The Vegas Golden Knights have hired an old friend of Gerard Gallant.
The pieces fall into place day by day as the expansion draft draws near. Vegas Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee said Gallant would be in charge of building his coaching staff. Today, Gallant made his first hire, and it’s an old friend of his.
The Golden Knights announced the hiring of Mike Kelly as an assistant coach. Kelly was also an assistant coach of the Vancouver Canucks back in 2006-08. But what stands out with Kelly is working relationship with Gallant.
Whenever these two are together, good things happen. They coached the Saint John Sea Dogs together back in 2010-11 and led the team to a Memorial Cup championship. In the two seasons they worked in the Saint John organization, they won the QMJHL championship both times.
Gallant and Kelly continued their success and led the Florida Panthers to a franchise best record of 47-27-9 in 2015-16. However, the team’s success was short-lived as they went down to the New York Islanders in six games. They both also went down together as the pair got fired after the Panthers started the 2016-17 season 11-9-1. Here’s the photo of them getting a ride in a taxi:
Gerard Gallant and Assistant Coach Mike Kelly fired by @FlaPanthers tonight. Waiting for cab. Photo courtesy AP pic.twitter.com/RIpd3elnyU
— SiriusXM NHL Network Radio (@SiriusXMNHL) November 28, 2016
The Golden Knights did not release what kind of work Kelly will specialize in so we’ll have to see as more assistant coaches start to pour in. Gallant expects that the assistant coaching staff should be all set in two weeks time.
"“It’s going to happen in the very near future,” Gallant said. “It’s probably going to happen in the next two weeks, for sure. I would say a lot earlier than that. But it definitely should be in the next few weeks that we have our staff together and in place.” – Gerard Gallant"
Gallant also told the Vegas Golden Knights website that he has a good idea of who will join the coaching staff. “We have a good idea of who the people are going to be,” Gallant said. “We have to go through the process to make sure they’re available. We’re getting real close to getting our staff. It’ll be just a little while longer.”
Next: Vegas Golden Knights Hire Their AHL Head Coach.
The team is filling their holes rapidly now ladies and gentlemen. With the expansion draft less than two weeks away, this is the moment Vegas hockey fans have been waiting a long time to see. Shortly after the Stanley Cup Finals ends, expect to see some deals made.